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What are the best games on Steam with grid-based movement?

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Jun 20, 2017

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11 Games Considered

Best games on Steam with grid-based movement	Price	Steam Rating	Genre
-- XCOM 2	$59.99	Very Positive	Tactical role-playing game, Turn-based tactics
-- Civilization V	$29.99	Very Positive	4X
-- Invisible, Inc.	$19.99	Mostly Positive	Turn-Based Tactics, Stealth, Roguelike
-- Legend of Grimrock	-	Very Positive	Very Positive
-- Endless Legend	-	Mixed	4X

XCOM 2

Top Pro

Excellent suspense

You're always against the clock in one way or another. Globally your enemies are moving forward with their plans and unless you actively work towards countering them, they will win. You'll be short on cash, manpower, and will have to work with inferior tech. On the field most missions have turn limits forcing you to act aggressively. This scrambling for resources, making with what you can, racing against the clock creates great suspense that makes it all the more satisfying to win an important mission. See More

Top Con

Performance could be better

Even when using well above the recommended hardware the game does show some performance issues as it is difficult to hold 60fps. While not the biggest problem thanks to this being a turn based game it would have been nice to see better performance and a constant 60fps when using what the developers recommended for best performance. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Tactical role-playing game, Turn-based tactics

Top Pro

It's fun to upgrade and manage your squad

As you progress through the game you can train and promote your soldiers to make them more effective in combat, unlock new abilities and upgrade their weapons armor. The interesting part of it is if a member gets injured (which is really easy to happen on the harder difficulties) they are not available for the following missions until they heal. So if you only upgrade one solider and he/she gets injured, you're in a really tough spot. The weapons, abilities, items and armor you can unlock are varied and interesting enough to make it really fun to progress through the game and build a custom squad based around how you like to go about your missions. See More

Civilization V

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Top Pro

Customization through policies

Policies are used as a tool to gain a variety of customizations that benefit ones society. There is a branching tree of policies that will allow the user to pick certain aspects that will suit them best such as adding law or religion to ones society which will give gains in certain aspects. See More

Top Con

No steam workshop support on Linux

The Linux port currently does not support steam workshop, and as the mac port made by the same developers has not received workshop support despite having been out for several years, it is unlikely that it ever will. Though there are unofficial workarounds to get the mods working. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Co-Op:2 to 21 Player Online / LAN

Controller Support:Steam Controller Officallly supported

Top Pro

Fantastic tactical combat

Civilization V has a great combat system that feels very tactical over previous versions as there is no stacking of troops, but with the new hexagonal grid players can surround enemies as well as allow for better tactics when planning attacks. See More

Top Con

Most victories won by timed or military victory

It can be pretty difficult to win by diplomacy or culture which does add some challenge to the game but it can get tiresome if one keeps winning by only military or timed victories. See More

Top Pro

Beautiful graphics

From the players cities and armies to the lush landscape, Civilization is quite a beautiful game for those with systems powerful enough to push the graphics to the limit. Even when on lower graphical settings the game looks lush and well animated. See More

Top Con

No stats on other Civ attitudes

Unlike past Civilization games there are no longer stats on the attitudes of the players surrounding Civilizations. This allowed one to see how each other nation felt about the player, but now that it is gone one has to guess, which is definitely not as helpful. See More

Top Pro

Endless scenarios and replayability

Civilization V has a large assortment of nation leaders to choose from that have an even bigger assortment of scenarios that are able to play out for said leaders. Each game can be quite unique in this way as each leader allows for a different nation to be controlled. See More

Top Con

One unit per tile

Civ 5 restricts you to having one unit per tile, but has an AI unable to handle that restriction well, and doesn't even have decent pathing for units. Late game becomes a slog of ordering each unit individually due to poor pathing. See More

Legend of Grimrock

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Top Pro

Lots of interesting and varied puzzles

There are many elements in game that require much puzzle solving through the use of hidden switches, locked doors, etc. See More

Top Con

Enemy AI can be easily exploited

Basically it is easier to run up to enemies hit them and then run away waiting for the cool down to expire than planning out tactics for each enemy. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Pro

Tile based combat

Much like tradition dungeon crawlers the combat is tile based where in each move is one tile at a time, just as an enemies. This makes for a good way to plan ahead of time by counting how many moves it takes to get to certain point or how many hits to kill an enemy. See More

Endless Legend

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Top Pro

As good as Civ, if not better in some areas

Tends to have more nuance to the way you play it, especially with different factions. Strategy and diplomacy also have larger roles in Endless Legend, helping to round out how one can play. See More

Top Con

Can get difficult sometimes

The gameplay can be difficult and may be a turn off to some gamers, but apparently there are mods to remove or tone down all of the annoying features (such as winters). For those that are willing to install mods to make the game easier or more palatable. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Mixed

Top Pro

Fantasy 4X game

If you're into a more fantasy settings, this is the game to go to as there are few fantasy set 4X games. See More

The Banner Saga 2

Top Pro

Allows for imports of gamesaves from first game

Players of the series can import their game saves from the previous title, giving them the option to start as one of two different characters. This ensures that choices made in the previous game are not lost when starting this game and experiencing the story it has to tell. See More

Top Con

Story feels a bit weak compared to the previous game

Much like the sophomore album syndrome (where the second album from a break out band falls flat) the story in this release feels a bit weak. While not horrible, it will have trouble connecting to players who are not already familiar with the series. There is also a sense that many of the story elements are setting up events to be found in the third game, meaning that players will be left unknowing what the conclusions are. See More

Specs

Genre:Turn-based RPG

Top Pro

Great combat

Much of the mechanics found in the original title remain the same, which is a good thing as the turn based tactical grid based combat is the strongest thing about this game series. There have been some slight improvements though making for a more balanced rhythm to the game by adding new units to both the players choices and the enemies, which mixes up the gameplay quite often to keep it feeling fresh. See More

Top Con

HP damage based attacks leave little room for expanding ones tactics

Due to the design of the gameplay, the amount of hit points a players unit has is the exact amount of damage they will inflict on an enemy. This makes for the winning strategy to always hit all enemy units on the playing field to ensure they inflict as little damage as possible. While players can go about it many other ways, this strategy tends to do the best, which is a bit limiting. See More

Top Pro

Great hand drawn graphics

The all hand drawn graphics are animated smoothly and are extremely detailed which makes for one heck of a good looking game. See More

Top Pro

Helps the player learn the gameplay

The first title in the series had a bit of trouble explaining all the aspects of play of the game. Luckily this has changed in the second release as there is now a camp where a trainer will give challenges to the player that explain the game a lot more in-depth. This is great for new players as they can learn the ins and outs a lot easier. See More

The Banner Saga

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Top Pro

Bleak yet beautiful music score

Composed by Austin Wintory, the musical score is quite beautiful and haunting. See More

Top Con

Pretty difficult and uneven

The difficulty is sometime uneven with some battles being not to hard after one that was extremely difficult. Couple this with how difficult the game can be even on the easy setting and it is very apparent that the game will take some patience to complete. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Turn-based RPG

Controller Support:No

Top Pro

Great hand drawn graphics

The all hand drawn graphics are animated smoothly and are extremely detailed which makes for one heck of a good looking game. See More

Sproggiwood

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Top Pro

Fully supports all aspect ratios

Some games do not fully adapt to the wide range of aspect ratios available on Android devices (the 4:3 screen on the Nexus 9 being a standout with this issue) which leads to letterboxing of some kind. Sproggiwood does not have this issue as it support all aspect ratios. See More

Top Con

Some may consider it expensive

Sproggiwood is priced at $10, which some may consider a high price point for mobile, though the game is a full PC title and priced $5 under the PC cost. A demo would have been a good option to try the game out, but sadly there is none available. See More

Specs

Genre:RPG / Roguelike

Controller Support:None

Top Pro

Six different classes

There are six different available classes in the game, making for a different experience when each one is used due to their different skill sets. See More

Top Con

No immersive mode

There is no immersive mode in the game which means the navigation bar will show taking up screen real estate on devices that do not have hardware navigation buttons. See More

Top Pro

PC perfect port

The Android version of the game is a PC perfect port where in there have been zero changes to the gameplay or content. This is a full PC title on mobile. See More

Top Pro

Can be played offline

For those that like their games to work when there is no internet connection Spoggiwood is a good choice as it requires zero internet connection. See More

Age of Wonders III

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Top Pro

Worthwhile leveling system

throughout the game players troops are leveling as long as they are being used. This adds to each's pool of abilities. There are also points one can earn in battle that can be used to unlock new abilities. Both of these systems add up to a competent way to always be leveling and give a feeling of advancement in the game. See More

Top Con

Some areas are too easy

At certain points of the game decision need to be made, which would normally mean something is lost when choosing, but sadly things like buildings are too easy to build meaning there is no loss when choosing what to do, which makes the choices meaningless. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Mixed

Top Pro

Intuitive tactical battles

The tactical battles in the game play out in a way that feels different depending on what enemies are being fought , which makes for a good way to differentiate play. The battles also play out in a fast fashion that is easy to understand making for an experience that feels well made due to how the player can pick up the play. See More

Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension

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Top Pro

Extremely complex

If you're familiar with any other games by Illwinter Game Design, you'll recognize the difficult game design. These games are extremely complex, takes ages to learn, and have enormous replayability. Provided you have the guts to go through the tough stuff first. See More

Top Con

Graphics outdated

If you care about graphics much, this game won't make you a fan. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Grand Strategy

Top Con

Extremely complex

No hand holding here, and the learning curve is a killer. However, people who invest the time to learn the game tend to be satisfied at the end. See More

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